At the heart of the narrative is the largely forgotten life of Wolcott Gibbs, the magazine₂s theater critic and all-around wit, author of an infamous 1936 parody of Time magazine. Around him swirled a legendary roster of writers, editors, and illustrators, including E. B. and Katharine White, James Thurber, Charles Addams, Peter Arno, and John O₂Hara. Their stories are told here, along with those of equally colorful but overlooked figures like managing editor St. Clair McKelway, head fact-checker Frederick Packard, and the flamboyant film reviewer John Chapin Mosher